Proud to emulate Kapil’s Devils, says bowling hero Zaheer Khan

India’s pace spearhead Zaheer Khan on Monday said that he and his teammates were happy to emulate the heroics of the 1983 World Cup winning team by lifting the title in cricket’s showpiece event in Mumbai on Sunday.

“It’s just an amazing thing to realise what the 1983 team experienced. We were kids then and used to look at it mostly. How special they made it and we are proud to have repeated the feat of 1983 (team),” said the left-arm pace bowler.

The triumphant squad attended a reception given in their honour by President Pratibha Patil at the Raj Bhavan here.

The 33-year-old Shrirampur-born bowler described the title triumph in front of packed 33,000 crowd at Wankhede Stadium as special.

“It was a special moment and it was a special day. To make history was in our hand. We supported each other and stayed united as a team,” he said.

“All the families were there in the dressing room. They were taking photos with the Cup. It was a great atmosphere in the dressing room,” he added.

The leading wicket taker in the tournament along with Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said the entire team wanted to win the World Cup for Sachin Tendulkar.

“We are very happy. We wanted to gift him the World Cup. The entire country was with us together,” he said.

Tendulkar dedicated the victory to the billion-strong people of the country and said he had been dreaming about it since childhood.